In Dec, 1950, while UN Forces & civilians were withdrawing from Seoul, few U.S. Airmen including, Col. Elmer Hess, Lt. Col. Russell L. Blaisdell, Staff Sgt. Merle "Mike" Strang, Col. Turner Rogers, along with Korean social workers rescued and evacuated 1,000 Korean war orphans pic.twitter.com/wvvimGWRk0
United Nations Sending State #France, has hosted a #Remembrance Ceremony at the War Memorial of #Korea in #Seoul. The #FrenchEmbassy conducted a National Order of Merit presentation where medals were presented by Mr. Philippe Lefort, Ambassador of France to the #ROK on behalf of pic.twitter.com/8ZkbvqfZ96
Pretty amazing that U.S. Marine Corporal Duane Dewey was able to smother a grenade and survive the explosion. He had previously been wounded by another grenade when the second grenade land near him that he smothered:
Marine Cpl. Duane Dewey receives the Medal of Honor from President Dwight Eisenhower at the White House, March 12, 1953. (Congressional Medal of Honor Society)
Korean War veteran Duane Dewey, whom President Dwight Eisenhower described as “made of steel” when he presented the machine-gunner with the Medal of Honor in 1953, died Monday at age 89.
The Marine Corps corporal earned the medal for smothering an enemy grenade with his body and sheltering his squad members from the blast as they fought near Panmunjom on April 16, 1952.
Dewey spent several months in the hospital recuperating from the blast to his hip. His death in St. Augustine, Fla., was announced Tuesday by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
Honoured to attend the transfer of 68 ROK and 6 US remains today at JBPHH. Attended by POTROK, CDR INDOPACOM and CDR UNC and a host of dignitaries this was a solemn and important event that marked the final voyage home for 74 @UN_Command soldiers. Awesome job by UNC Honor Guard! pic.twitter.com/pFjaf2P4eW
Here we go again with President Moon wanting a declaration to end the Korean War:
President Moon Jae-in addresses the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Tuesday (EST). Yonhap
President Moon Jae-in once again renewed his call for a formal end to the 1950-53 Korean War in an effort to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, but the feasibility of his proposal is questionable, given the state of relations between the two Koreas and the U.S.
During a speech at the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Tuesday (EST), Moon proposed a trilateral or quadrilateral declaration to proclaim a formal end to the Korean War.
The war ended in an armistice signed in 1953 by the U.S.-led United Nations Command, China and North Korea, leaving the two Koreas technically still at war.
“Today, I once again urge the community of nations to mobilize its strengths for the end-of-war declaration on the Korean Peninsula, and propose that the three parties of the two Koreas and the U.S., or the four parties of the two Koreas, the U.S. and China, come together and declare that the war on the Korean Peninsula is over,” Moon said.
“When the parties involved in the Korean War stand together and proclaim an end to the war, I believe we can make irreversible progress in denuclearization and usher in an era of complete peace,” he added.
You can read more at the link, but the rhetoric for ending the Korean War has been going on for years because both the Moon administration and the Kim regime in North Korea want the peace treaty because it then challenges the legitimacy of the U.S. military presence in South Korea. If there is peace why is USFK needed? The Korean left and the Kim regime have always wanted the U.S. out of Korea and a peace treaty with little to nothing in return from North Korea is one path towards doing that.
The real question is if the Biden administration is going to take the bait on this or not? With all the bad headlines they may be eager for something that looks like a foreign policy victory by pursuing such a declaration. I guess we will see what happens.
